I wrote this for work last summer.

This was an "Auto Atlanta" sponsored blog post on a Porsche blog.  It was short and sweet.  I like the cover of the operators manual.

I want you to think of the rarest Porsche you can.  Got it?  What did you pick?  The crazy excess of the 959?  Nope, there were 337 group B wonders crafted.  904 Carerra GTS?  120 of those bad boys were made.  The 924 Carrera GT?  Forget about it, 76 of them rolled off the line in Germany.  911 GT1 Strassenversion?  No way, due to homologation rules, 25 were hand assembled.  The rare 916?  Not even, Porsche made 11 of these killer 914 derivitives.  You were getting close with the 916, but this 914 special is twice again as rare with what is generally accepted as only five examples in existence.  Thanks to a letter written from the factory to a curious Sportomatic owner in 1979, we know that the Factory accepts that 5 cars were built as prototypes, and eventually were sold.  Luckily the letter was written in English!

With over eight thousand 911 Sportomatic cars built, it is significantly less rare.  Internally very similar to the 911 sportomatic, the 914/6 version had the distinction of being the only 914 with two pedals.  The Sportomatic is often considered the first “automanual” transmission in the same vein as the current PDK (Porsche Doppelkupplung) transmissions, only instead of paddle shifters mounted on the steering column, the Sportomatic had a more traditional shifter in the center of the car with only P for park, R for reverse, L for low, and D, D3, and D4 for drive.  Also, the Sportomatic uses a Torque Converter type transfer of power, as opposed to the dual clutch type in the modern PDK.

One of the original five sits quietly in the Automobile Atlanta showroom in Marietta, GA.  We acquired the car in 1996, and began an extensive restoration of the car.  The engine had been rebuilt once already, the car had been repainted, yet the transmission still soldiered on.  A full mechanical, and aesthetic restoration was done, and the car is now completely pristine.  Come by our showroom to see this, and all of our other brilliant showroom cars.